"Rusty's the unpolished, gravelly punk band that Nirvana wanted to be if commercial success hadn't gotten in the way. From the first crunching riff of 'Groovy Dead', you can hear the gleeful inattention to detail that only great garage punk bands can achieve. The drums are punchy and loud; the guitars are ragged and energetic; Ken McNeil's singing voice recalls Johnny Rotten at his all-night-drinking-binge best. And yet Rusty can find beauty in the rough, with a pseudo-ballad called 'California' that fools you into thinking it'll settle into a pop formula, before McNeil unleashes his rage-filled wailing chorus. A marvelous debut album that demonstrates the great promise of this Canadian band."

Rusty was a Canadian alternative rock band in the 1990s. Following the breakup of One Free Fall, vocalist Ken MacNeil and bassist Jim Moore continued working together, hooking up with former Doughboys member Scott McCullough (guitar) and Mitch Perkins (drums) to record the EP Wake Me in 1994.

Released on Handsome Boy Records, the EP was popular on Canadian campus radio, and led to a major label distribution deal with BMG Records for their full length album Fluke in 1995. Led by the hit single "Misogyny", which featured a video consisting of clips from Canadian filmmaker Bruce LaBruce's film Hustler White, Fluke was the band's commercial breakthrough, also spawning the singles "Wake Me", "Groovy Dead" and "California", and earning a Juno Award nomination for Best Alternative Album. In 1996, the band contributed a cover of "Let's Break Robert Out of Jail" to the compilation album A Tribute to Hard Core Logo. The band's followup album, Sophomoric, was released in 1997, including the singles "Empty Cell" and "Oh No Joe". Perkins left the band that year and was replaced by John Lalley. Perkins left the group due to creative differences and released an electronic album independently with Andrew Massey under the name "Blu Pernu".

In 1998, Rusty released Out of Their Heads. The band subsequently broke up, playing their final show on November 25, 2000.

Music

Chris Wardman first came to the public eye as the guitar player and songwriter for seminal Canadian new wave band Blue Peter. The band’s hit songs included “Chinese Graffiti”, “Radio Silence” and the hugely popular “Don’t Walk Past”. “Don’t Walk Past” continues to garner airplay on radio and MuchMusic, many years later. Getting a taste for recording while working with British producer Steve Nye (Japan, Bryan Ferry, The Cure) on a Blue Peter album, Wardman went on to a successful producing career of his own. After releasing four discs Blue Peter disbanded and Wardman slid easily into the producer’s chair, working on albums for Chalk Circle, Randy Bachman, Emm Gryner, The Watchmen, Art Bergmann, Rusty, Big Wreck and many others. From 1989 to 1992, he was on the payroll at Capitol EMI Records as staff producer working with bands like Leslie Spit Treeo, David Gogo, The Tragically Hip, 13 Engines, National Velvet and more.

Online

Chris Wardman has been involved in interactive media since the early days of websites and CDROMs. For over 10 years Chris worked at BMG and Universal Music running their official artist sites and corporate web presence. He has built enhanced cds, dvds, tv spots and artist interviews. He has worked on numerous websites for a multitude of artists including the Spinnerette, Thornley, Crash Test Dummies, The Tragically Hip, Jully Black, Hedley, and Jacksoul. He specializes in clean, modern design with a bit of edge. Behind the scenes sites are managed with open source content management systems that allow client friendly updates using web 2.0 technologies and clean code. Current clients include labels, lifestyle management companies, artist management companies and talent management companies.